2024 Term 1 Week 10

Important Dates

Principal's Report

Welcome

As Term 1 draws to an end at Eastwood Public School, it's remarkable how swiftly time flies! As I reflect on the past weeks, I'm filled with gratitude for the incredible efforts of our staff. Their unwavering dedication, whether it's coaching PSSA teams or nurturing creative talents during lunch breaks, truly sets the foundation for our students' success.

A heartfelt thank you also goes to our supportive community, whose contributions enrich every aspect of school life. Whether through active involvement in the P&C, lending a hand at the canteen, or simply engaging with us day-to-day, your support is invaluable.

Thank you to our Learning Support Team and our School Liaison Support Officers (SLSOs) for their fantastic work in the classrooms. They've been a huge help to our students, and we appreciate all they do to support them. Their dedication and care make a real difference, and we're grateful for their hard work.

Let's not forget our indispensable front office staff, the backbone of our operations, who ensure smooth functioning behind the scenes and offer care and comfort to our students in times of need.

And of course, our students, the heartbeat of our school. Their dedication, enthusiasm, and thirst for knowledge inspire us all. It's their eagerness to learn and grow that makes Eastwood Public School truly exceptional.

As we embrace the upcoming break, I wish everyone a restful and holiday period. May you recharge and return refreshed for the adventures that await in Term 2.

   School Uniform

Recently, I've observed a variety of attire being worn to school, deviating from the designated school uniform. As we approach the start of Term 2, it's important that all students adhere to wearing their complete winter uniform. The Parent-Teacher Association (P&C) strongly supports the requirement for all students to wear the full school uniform, including hats and appropriate footwear.

Presently, there is a noticeable assortment of different hats being worn. It's important to emphasise that only the school-endorsed hat is approved by both the P&C and the school. In the upcoming term, the school will communicate with parents regarding any continued instances of incorrect uniform, including non-compliant hats. Let's ensure a unified and respectful appearance as we move forward into the new term.

Unlike sporting hats, which may vary in style and design, a school hat maintains a consistent and identifiable appearance for all students, fostering a sense of belonging and pride in their school. Additionally, our school hat bears the school's emblem or colours, further strengthening students' connection to the school. By wearing a school hat instead of a sporting hat, students demonstrate respect for their school's traditions and values while promoting a cohesive and focused atmosphere conducive to learning.

Should you require any financial assistance when purchasing the school uniform, don't hesitate to reach out to the school. Rest assured, all communication regarding financial aid will be treated with utmost confidentiality.

Beginning with Term 2, students are required to wear their complete winter uniform, which includes black shoes (except on designated Sport Days) and the school hat. For more details on purchasing school uniforms, please consult the Uniform Shop.

Eastwood Uniform Shop

Mobile Phones/Devices/Smart Watches

This is a friendly reminder that, in alignment with the NSW Government's directive on mobile phones in schools, the use of mobile phones and wearable devices, including smartwatches, is strictly prohibited on school grounds. The new policy, effective from Term 4, 2023, aims to create a focused and conducive learning environment.

Wearable devices encompass items such as AirPods, headphones, smartwatches, and Apple Watches. If a student is observed with a smartwatch on their wrist, they will be kindly requested to remove it and store it in their bag. In the event of repeated instances, the smartwatch may be confiscated and can be retrieved at the end of the school day.

For further information, please refer to the Department of Education's guidelines on the mobile phone and smartwatch ban:

Mobile phones now banned in all NSW public schools

Student Use of Mobile Phones in Schools

Thank you for your cooperation in maintaining a distraction-free learning environment.

Facebook

Eastwood Public School has a lot to be proud of and celebrate, so to showcase all the great talents of our students we post many photos and descriptions on the Eastwood Public School Facebook page. This is a celebration site where we highlight different aspects of the school, be it classroom work, sporting events or special occasions. It will not be a vehicle to communicate the day-to-day happenings of the school or to disseminate notes etc but designed to display the achievements of students at Eastwood Public School.

Please have a look:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064733392222

New Build

I’m excited to announce that our New Build is moving full steam ahead. The Funding has come through and new build is really starting to shape. The roof is on and windows are being installed. We should be ready to move in at the beginning of 2025….

Below is a photo of the Solar Panels being installed.

Between 15 April and 20 April 2024 traffic control and signage will be in place and 3 parking spaces along Rowe Street will be inaccessible. See map below.

We thank the community for your patience while we deliver this important upgrade.

Staff Development Day

School development days are used by schools to build on the knowledge and skills of our teachers, school leaders and school administrative support staff through a targeted professional learning program.

On Monday 29 April (Staff Only) the teachers will focus on curriculum implementation to support the school in the provision of high-quality educational outcomes for all students. The school planning will focus on processes that recognise the centrality of the curriculum in the domains of learning, teaching and leading.

Eastwood Public School will be focusing on:

• The teaching and Learning Cycle and K-6 English
• The teaching and Learning Cycle and K-6 Mathematics
• Purposeful assessment.

You Can Do It

The 5 Keys that Unlock Children’s Potential

Confidence

Confidence requires that young people not be overly concerned with what others think if they make a mistake. Confidence is revealed when young people are not afraid to fail and are happy to meet someone new. Confidence involves young people having trust in themselves and believing that they will probably be successful in the end. Confident young people stand up straight, look people in the eye, and speak clearly and with a firm tone of voice.

Persistence

Persistence is revealed when young people try hard when doing school work they find frustrating and do not feel like doing, and finish their work on time. Young people who keep trying to complete an assignment rather than becoming distracted, and those who elect to play after they’ve done their work, demonstrate motivation and can be described as being persistent

Organisation

Organisation is revealed when young people keep track of their assignments, schedule their time effectively, and set goals for how well they want to do in specific areas of their schoolwork and in other endeavours. Organisation also means having all your supplies ready to do school work and having all your supplies ready a system for storing previously learned material.

Getting Along

Getting Along is revealed when young people work cooperatively with each other, resolve conflicts by discussion rather than fights, manage their anger, show tolerance, and follow class rules, including making responsible choices so that everyone’s rights are protected. Getting Along also involves young people making positive contributions to helping others and to making the school, home, and community safer, healthier, and good places to live and learn.

Resilience

Resilience is shown when young people are able to stop themselves from getting frustrated, down, or worried when faced with challenging events and difficult situations and people. Resilience means being able to control your behaviour when very upset without fighting or withdrawing for too long. It also means being able to calm down after having been upset and bouncing back to work and being with other people.

If you would like to know more about You Can Do It, please follow the link below.

You Can Do It

Thank you

Michael Kammerer

Principal

Deputy Principal's Report

Sarah Balestriere (3-6) Leonie Marshman (K-2) 

Have you heard your child use these words when talking about SPELLING - Phoneme, grapheme, digraph, quadgraph, schwa, segment, syllables, prefixes, suffixes, morphemes? These are some of the new vocabulary used in the classroom when we teach, learn and talk about SPELLING.

It would be impossible to learn how to spell every word in the English language separately through memorisation, so children need to learn how the spelling system works and how to make generalisations, and this is best done when integrated with the teaching of phonological awareness, phonics, word study, vocabulary, writing and reading. It takes time to learn how to spell, but good spellers gradually develop automaticity or fluency in spelling high-frequency and known words, which allows them to dedicate their attention to the complex task of writing composition.

Foundations Of Spelling

Effective spellers understand and make use of four kinds of linguistic knowledge, alongside visual and strategic processes: 

Mrs Kathy Gounakis

Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Instruction

Easter Hat Parade

What a shame the wet weather spoilt our Easter Hat Parade arrangements. Thank you to all our parents for your understanding. As you can see the damp weather didn’t dampen our students’ enthusiasm.

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 12

Next

Kindergarten Happenings

In math lessons, KA has been refining their skills in counting both forwards and backwards, mastering the correct formation of numbers, delving into measurements such as length, and utilizing descriptive language like "long" and "short" to identify the size of objects.

Stage 1 Happenings

1B have had a exceptional start to the year. They have been very busy in the classroom and have loved opportunities to learn in mathematics using blocks, dice, dominoes, shoes and even feet! 1B especially enjoyed Kitchen Garden lessons where they have been able to showcase their safe cooking skills in the kitchen. They have spent time reading and learning with students in 5DV and showed off their superb dance moves at the Easter Hat Parade.

Stage 3 Happenings - Class 5NC

Gymnastics:

With Fit Futures this term, we have learned about flexibility, jumping and catching skills. We have participated in cool activities like 'unlucky shapes' and 'the floor is lava'.  Fit Futures also provides challenges and there's levels like level 1, level 2 and level 3 which is the hardest. We also got to play touch the lights and it’s really fun. We learned about creating shapes with our bodies and how to land  safely after jumping off gymnastics equipment like the trampoline and the balance beams. 

By: Noah S

Stage 3 Sport at Eastwood Oval:

Every Friday if the weather is right, we go to Eastwood Oval for sport and lunch. We switch sports every two weeks. The teachers help the kids learn how to play different sports and make them know what to do in every situation. After we are worn out from sport we lay on a hill and enjoy our well earned lunch. Then the teachers let the kids have free play so we don’t miss out on our lunch time. This time we spend at the oval helps us get fit, healthy and happy even though we only do this once a week. We are lucky to get the equipment we need to have blast playing sports. Eastwood public school kids are thankful for the time in the sun!

By: Miles H

The Wild Robot:

At the start of the term we read a book called The Wild Robot. It was a science fiction book. We learned about narrative writing and about characterization. Then we talked about first person, second person and third person where we wrote a story using first person, second person, and third person.  We also talked about rising tension and made a graph about the events, for example, when the graph goes up a bit it would be a mini problem and when it goes up a lot it would be the main problem and when it goes down it means the problem got solved. Later on, we learned about literary devices like personification, imagery and alliteration. At the end of the story, we discussed how Roz’s (the main character) personality changed throughout the story. For example, at the start she was clueless and didn’t know how to communicate, but at the end Roz became loving and had a gosling named Brightbill as her son. 

By: Nathan S

Languages

On Thursday, March 21st, Harmony Day was celebrated. Korean students marked the occasion by embracing the values of diversity, inclusiveness, respect, and belonging through a range of activities. These activities included whole class discussions focusing on the essence of Harmony Day, reading Harmony Day related picture books, creating a Harmony Day poster, participating in the Harmony Tree activity, and crafting orange origami lotus flowers to represent the colour of Harmony Day. The orange lotus flower is used as a symbol to represent cultural diversity and inclusiveness. Like the flower, we can all rise above adversity and bloom despite our differences.

Sport

Ryde Zone and Sydney North Representative

Congratulations to two of our Year 6 students who trialed for both Ryde Zone and Sydney North representative sports teams this term. 

In tennis, Owen C was successful against very strong opposition to qualify as a reserve for the Sydney North team recently.

Caleb S was selected for the combined Ryde/Beecroft zones team and played at Terrigal recently in the very strong Sydney North trials. 

Caleb has now been selected to represent Sydney North in the State Basketball Championships which will be played in Newcastle next term... A great effort!!!

Congratulations to both boys on a fantastic effort so far!!

Ryde Zone Swimming Carnival 2024

On Thursday 7^th of March we had our Ryde Zone Swimming Carnival.

The students who attend this carnival placed 1^st or 2^nd in our EPS swimming carnival. The students from EPS were showed excellent sportsmanship and cheered on their teammates throughout the day.

Some of our students (Alicia F, Charlie P and Clara K) swam in every race offered in their age group, often racing in a new race minutes after they had just gotten out of the pool.

We had 4 students making it to finals Chelsea L, Jayden K, Charlie P and Clara K.

Charlie was in final races for breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke and came away with a third place ribbon for backstroke.

Clara K had an excellent day in the pool and came away with a1st, 2nd and 3^rd place for 50m freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. That was not all as she was awarded the 11 year old age champion.

It was such an exciting day and the students from EPS should feel extreme pride in their swimming efforts.

Clara also participated in the SYDNEY NORTH PRIMARY SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS this week and did a fantastic job placing 2nd in both 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.  

On April 11th Clara will compete at the State level championships. Good luck Clara, we are proud of you. 

Swimming - Junior State Age Championships

On March 23rd-24th, 2024 Clara participated in the Junior State Age Championships, a major event in her swimming career.

Clara achieved outstanding results in the competition. She won first place in both the 50m Breaststroke and 100m Breaststroke events, earning two gold medals. She was overjoyed with her achievements, and her hard work and dedication truly paid off.

Congratulations Clara!!

PSSA

PSSA has begun! It took a couple of weeks to start as we had field closures and then predicted extreme weather conditions.

The following round results were a great start and we are so excited to be out there playing against the Ryde zone schools.

Round 3 March 1^st

Players of the Match: Larissa L, Isabella F, Linarh C, Jayden K, Thomas R, Nicholas C, Kayla S, Lachlan M and Charlie P.

Round 4 March 8^th

Round 5 March 15^th

(Many draws due to poor weather conditions)

Round 6 March 22^nd 

Merit Awards

Community News